Wednesday July 9th, 2008

Athletics 2, Mariners 0

 Justin Duchscherer became the new ace of the Oakland Athletics today as they traded Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs.  Tonight Duchscherer showed why they were so confident in the move.  Pitching a complete game 2-Hitter, Duchscherer (10-5) only faced three batters over the minimum striking out four and only walking one. 

Carlos Silva pitched a complete game as well for the Mariners striking out 5, while walking zero A’s batters.  The M’s wasted another good pitching peformance by getting no run support.  Emil Brown had an RBI single, and Donnie Murphy added a sacrifice fly to provide Oakland with all the offense they would need.  The game moved quickly only taking 1 hour and 49 minutes to complete.

The Mariners only two hits of the night came on a double by Richie Sexson, and a Miguel Cairo double.  Cairo and Willie Bloomquist started in the infield for Jose Lopez and Yuniesky Betancourt respectively, but neither could do much to jump start a suddenly struggling offense. 

 I wonder if the sudden 3 game losing streak brings the team back down to earth since their nice play of late under interim mangager Jim Riggleman.  Some tough decisions must be made by the organization in the coming weeks.  The last three straight pathetic offense performances sure do make it look like anyone could be expendable.  

The A’s will send Joe Blanton to the mound for game 3 of the four game set.  Miguel Batista returns to the rotation for the Mariners.

Mariners Blog